I Needed You

10

“This place doesn’t have lights.  This place has creaky floors.  This place has no windows. This place is cold.  This place is dangerous, but safe for the small.  What is it?” I repeated to Sam as I paced his bedroom with my hands folded behind my back.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” He asked, tossing another piece of popcorn in his mouth.

“I don’t fucking know.  I don’t understand why Aryia couldn’t have just told us where she was.  That would have made this shit a whole lot easier,” I scoffed, thinking of how many times I’ve tried to call him over the past two days since we met at the restaurant. 

Officer Caddel had no idea what the riddle meant when I relayed it to him, and his team he hired for Taylor has yet to figure it out.

“Do you think it’s somewhere we’ve been?” Sam asked, causing me to laugh with annoyance

“How am I supposed to fucking know, Sam? We’ve been everywhere,”  I counted on my fingers as I listed, “Austrailia, the UK, Egypt, Dubai, All over America, Canada. She could be anywhere,” 

“True,” Sam shrugged simply.  “Well, let’s think about the riddle for a second.  Where she is has no power or windows. It has noisy floors, no heat and is dangerous though small things live there.  What could that mean?”

“It sounds like every abandoned place we’ve ever been to.  That really doesn’t narrow down our options,” I reminded, pausing and sitting on the bed across from Sam.

“Yes, but Aryia clearly knows where she is, and if he was able to come on such short notice, than her being out of the country is slim,” Sam assumed, “So that means that she probably is in California soon,”

“We’ve explored everywhere.  Maybe she’s at the entrance to hell,” I thought back to when we had our first semi-serious argument.  Now, it could be something we could think about and laugh together.  But she could be there.

“Nah, it’s too public.  Someone would have to report a woman being tortured there.  And there’s creaky floors, so they have to be wooden,” Sam threw the idea away.

“But caves are cold.  And have no power,” I pointed out obviously.  Nobody was stupid enought to put electricity in a rock hole.

“Maybe it’s a place with caves and abandoned buildings.  We went to that abandoned city in New York a couple weeks ago, didn’t we?” Sam sat up with excitement, thinking he solved the problem.

“Didn’t you just say she probably was in California?” I raised an eyebrow at him, causing him to slouch back into his bed.

“Oh.  Yeah,” He sighed, “This is so difficult.  Why did she have to get kidnapped?”

“Cause we’re stupid. We should have just brought her with us and kept her away from us filming,” I stated quietly.  There was nothing we could do about that night but regret.  Regret everything that happened from the second we picked her up to the moment we left.

I didn’t tell anybody about the kiss, and Taylor probably hates me so there’s no point in thinking back on it.

It’s something that I think I will always keep with me, at least in memory.  I know deep down that Taylor was still the same, she was the same girl I invited to investigate with me and I followed into the hotel.

I walked out, walked up to Sam and Fazerug like nothing happened.  Like I had simply said goodbye, and just goodbye, like I was okay with leaving her there.

I didn’t know that goodbye was the last thing I’d say to her for two, almost three, weeks.  I would have valued the moment more, and I don’t think I would’ve left at all.

I wish I could go back in time and protect her from Alex and Aryia.  I wish I was able to keep Aryia around, keep him safe, and not lose Taylor like I did.

I thought I was doing something good, protecting Taylor.  That turned out to be wrong and what I am doing now clearly isn’t right either.

But this time, I’m not going to let Sam keep me from seeing her.  I am going to help Taylor and if he thinks it's a bad idea then he can kiss my ass.

I feel the same way I did when Taylor, Jake and Corey were trapped in the cave with the bats.  Granted, the situation was lighter and I knew they’d be okay, but I still felt helpless.

There was nothing I could do but watch them have bats fly around their heads and run into cave walls.  Corey’s flashlight would have died at any moment, which would have left us in the dark.

“Sam!” I gasped, turning quickly to face him on the bed, “Cerro Gordo! She’s at Cerro Gordo! God, we’re so stupid not to think of it before,” I stood up, running to where I threw my phone on the floor and scrolled through my contacts, not listening to whatever Sam had to say before putting the phone to my ear.

“Officer Caddel?” I asked with urgency as he picked up, “I know where Taylor is.  She’s in Cerro Gordo,”

“Cerro Gordo?” He asked in disbelief, “That town has been abandoned for years.  You sure it’s Cerro Gordo, son?”

“Yes!” I snapped before remembering who I was talking to, “Sorry.  But we went there last year and it matches the rhyme perfectly.  No lights, creaky floors, no windows and it is cold.  It’s dangerous but small things live there.  An abandoned town doesn’t have lights or good flooring.  The caves have no windows and no heat and they’re dangerous because they collapse all the time.  But animals live in them,” 

“Wow, okay I’ll have my crew fly in and see what’s going on.  Thank you so much,” He hung up the phone quickly.

I shot a smile at Sam, a wide, toothy smile.  We were so close to having her home.

“We did it brother,” Sam returned a smile back to me, and both of us turned our heads as footsteps pounded through Sam’s office.

It was Kat, pausing when she saw me in their room.  She took her time, slowly looking back and forth between us.  Her face oddly mirrored ours, and I realized that she was hiding something behind her back.

“Whatcha’ got there?” Sam motioned to her hidden hands.

“I was eavesdropping,” Katrina said, her tone giddy as she revealed the cups and straws in her hands, “And I made slushies,”